Life at Misselthwaite Manor
by Ming Xiong
Summary: Four vignettes describing life after the events of "The Secret Garden". No pairings.
1. 1912

Disclaimer: "The Secret Garden" belongs to Frances Hodgson-Burnett and was published in 1910.

Author's note: I recently listened to an English recording of the book, and here is the result. I welcome all constructive criticism. Please bear with the dates instead of titles, because I couldn't find anything more suitable. Also, English is not my mother tongue – just a warning.

Vignette 1/4

.

**1912**

When she had lived in India, Mistress Mary Quite Contrary had never wished for friends. She disliked people older than her, she disliked people younger than her, though the worst might have been the children her own age, uncouth creatures in fine clothing like the one who, seeing her in her nursery while he was allowed in company, had made a face in her direction. Mistress Mary had pinched her lips very tightly and ignored him; she did not need anyone not devoted to her pleasure.

She did not need anyone.

.

On arriving to England and discovering the moor and the gardens though, Mistress Mary slowly lost her contrary air and sallow cheeks and quite began to wish – not for someone who might like her, not yet, but for someone she might like. And the magic had granted her wish beyond measure as the robin, Dickon, Martha and Ben Weatherstaff had come to her; later, even more people were added to the list, so that she would need both her hands to count them all! So Mary had thought her life perfect.

With time and habit, however, came the problems again. Mary had discovered that she had been very spoiled whilst living in India – Colin had yet to realise that fact about himself – and spending time not with one friend but two brought its share of aggravation, because it meant having to share.

She had shared Martha with her family and, without knowing at the time, with Colin. She had shared her garden – with Dickon, with Ben Weatherstaff, with Colin also, and on and on the list went until the garden was no longer secret. She had shared her gardening tools with Colin so he may help in the garden, her nights with Colin when he couldn't sleep, her illustrated books with Colin because he knew his by heart, her time with Dickon to help him heal.

And so she felt quite justified when, as her dear cousin had tried to order her about like a rajah would his servant, she had pushed him into the pond. It would not harm a healthy boy like him to refresh his head from time to time, after all.


	2. 1913

Disclaimer: "The Secret Garden" belongs to Frances Hodgson-Burnett and was published in 1910.

Vignette 2/4

.

**1913**

Mary woke one day with a stomach ache and a wet nightdress. She immediately knew what had happened, of course; Mrs Sowerby had taken her apart from the others some six months ago, in the garden, to explain to her all about Very Important & Mystifying Womanly Preoccupations.

Holding the covers up and seeing the amount of blood incrusted in the bed linens, Mary felt rather glad she had listened to Mrs Sowerby, or she might have found herself imitating Colin when he still thought he was going to die.

That would have been mortifying.

Martha, who had been stoking the fire, simply smiled and went to fetch a water jug and some new linen. Mary cleaned herself, slipped on the Mysterious Undergarments Mrs Medlock had provided her with over a year ago, and forwent the usual glass of milk placed beside her breakfast plate. All things considered, she felt rather glad this day had finally come.

.

Sour Mistress Mary Quite Contrary, who had not made an appearance in well over two years, returned with a vengeance though when a governess arrived later in the week, clutching a heavy tome on etiquette to her bony chest. Perhaps, she thought, becoming a woman was not worth this trouble.


	3. 1914

Disclaimer: "The Secret Garden" belongs to Frances Hodgson-Burnett and was published in 1910.

Vignette 3/4

.

**1914**

When Martha left Mrs Medlock's service to become a servant of Misselthwaite proper, she was quite happy to see her pay increased and her duties barely changed, for very few servants were prepared to spend time with both Master Colin and Miss Mary. Martha could not understand this attitude though, because, while she vividly remembered what horrible little creatures they had still been not three years before, she could also admire how far they had come since then. So she cheerfully went on lighting the fires and bringing breakfast and generally caring for the both of them, and imagined herself doing the same every day for another four years at last.

Change came much more quickly than she had thought, however, because her having a new position meant that the old one had to be filled. And so came a new servant to Misselthwaite, a small slip of a girl who Martha vaguely remembered from church. Hardworking, or Mrs Medlock would not have chosen her. But Martha also thought she remembered her gossiping with her friends and batting her lashes at the lads every time her mother took her eyes off her.

It was a good thing, Martha decided, that the new servant was not in charge of waking the young master. She smiled and went to put Miss Mary's new dresses away.

Martha found herself torn between amusement and irritation when, the very next day, she heard a loud giggle echo in the staircase and saw athletic, proud, _handsome_ Master Colin looking most unsettled in the face of this heretofore unknown specimen of the female race, who was gazing at him with rather hungry eyes.


	4. 1919

Disclaimer: "The Secret Garden" belongs to Frances Hodgson-Burnett and was published in 1910.

Vignette 4/4

.

**1919**

Mary's mother, the regretted Mrs Lennox, had been beautiful. She had been gifted with not only a beautiful appearance, but also with a comely – if rather flighty – character, and had been dutiful enough to learn pretty manners and marry a young man with a more than satisfying income and position. Of all those who had known her, the only one perhaps who did not regret her was her own daughter; for all her pretty manners had not made her want children, so she'd left Mary, the plain and squalling infant who had deformed her figure for months, to the care of her servants.

Of those few who had seen both Mary and her mother, they all had compared the beautiful woman with her yellow sullen child, and had not understood how they could be related. Though it had been the Indian climate that had caused the child's indolence and plainness, and only a month at Misselthwaite had made such an impact on Mary's face and temper that Mrs Medlock called her almost pretty. If this had been a month's work, would the miracle continue as more time passed?

.

At nineteen years of age, Miss Mary Lennox could be called a beautiful woman. She was not as pale as the London beauties were, and she could look rather sour when faced with strangers or with her governess, but her calm demeanour and her artless way more than made up for those perceived defects, and she had more than her share of silent admirers. Colin knew for a fact that little Tommy Sowerby had declared his intent of wedding her instead of his own mother. His brothers had been appalled.

Colin was rather amused at the fact that Mary was still blinded to her own merits, and he had used their last stay in company to evaluate his cousin's appeal to the more refined society. This very scientific experiment had been so conclusive – and entertaining – that Colin decided to repeat it as soon as possible.

.

The occasion came as they were in London. There they went, Mary looking rather impatient to go back to their hotel, Colin trailing behind and counting the admiring glances turned her way.

They decided to eat at the hotel's restaurant on their last day, having walked a great deal in the afternoon, and the apprentice who took their coats looked twice over his shoulder to gaze dreamily upon Mary's profile. Suddenly, as Colin had just asked his cousin about her visit to Kew, he heard a great muffled bang and saw that the assistant had dropped a heavy coat and was staring insistently at them. The maître d' cried out, "Basil!" and Colin witnessed Mary's mouth tightening, tightening as it had not in years –

Sitting in the train and facing his pale-faced and raging cousin, Colin hummed the tune to "with silver bells and cockle-shells", and thought Dickon would have enjoyed the moment.

… _and marigolds in a row._

_._

_._

_Basil was the little boy who started calling Mary "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" when she stayed with his family just after her parents' death._

"_Her visit to Kew" is referring to the Kew Gardens. And Wikipedia says that "__in February 1913 the Tea House was burned down by suffragettes Olive Wharry and Lilian Lenton during a series of arson attacks in London", which is useless knowledge but interesting all the same._

_As to Dickon… I'm not sure how you'll interpret that, but I think that everything becomes clear when you look at the date. _

_Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!_


End file.
